


wherever i can

by MsMaarvel



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-08-06 20:01:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16394177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsMaarvel/pseuds/MsMaarvel
Summary: For a couple of ninjas, these two sure lack subtlety. Sometimes it takes not one but two villages and a mission to get a couple together.





	1. mission

**Author's Note:**

> thanks maddie for pushing me to write this alkjsjdf; sometimes just bouncing headcanons off each other isnt enough

“Excuse me?” Gaara frowns, eyes boring into the document laid out before him.

“You can read.” Temari snickers behind her hand.

His eyes lift to glare at his sister instead. “I can. Better question, why me?”

Temari shrugs, feigning ignorance. “We just thought you would be the best person to counter and compliment Uzumaki’s…. Massive personality.”

“I suppose I could take this mission.” Gaara idly knits his fingers together, teeth biting at his lips worriedly.  _ Temari couldn’t know, could she? _   “I’ll start preparations.” Nodding toward his sister and his suspiciously silent brother, he exits the room.

He can hear Kankuro break out into laughter before he gets more than a handful of steps away and his ears immediately burn red. Maybe he had been that obvious. Trying to push the thoughts of a boisterous, adorable blonde out of his head, he shakes his head slightly.

A job’s a job. It’s time to prepare and focus.

* * *

 

“What do you mean? You never let me on disguise missions, Grandma Tsunade!” Naruto’s fists balled up at his side.

“I thought you’d be happy.” Tsunade huffed, leaning her cheek on her hand. “Isn’t Gaara of the Sand your-”

“Lady Tsunade means that she thought you’d be happy about finally getting another chance.” Shizune puts her hands up in a placating manner, giving Tsunade a meaningful look. “You remember what happened last time, Naruto.”

Naruto’s hand scratches the back of his head as he grins sheepishly. “Guess I do… But why something like this?”  _ Why so intimate a mission with someone so attractive? _

“Is it going to be an issue?” Tsunade presses. “This order from your Hokage, it’s not too much is it? If you can’t do this simple mission, I’m not sure you’re Hokage material yourself. Disguise and information gathering is essential to ninja and there's no better time to prove yourself than now.”

Now that got Naruto fired up. “I can do anything! I’ll be Hokage, just you wait Grandma! I’m on it! This mission will be a breeze!” Before anyone else could breathe, Naruto is out the door.

“You can’t let him know he’s being obvious, Lady Hokage!” Shizune chastises once Naruto has disappeared. “It’s something he’s got to deal with himself! We can help them along with this mission, but it’s up to them to figure things out.”

“These kids.” Tsunade grumbles. “They drive me to drink.”

“It’s not a far drive, Lady Tsunade.” Shizune chimes in evenly, patting the blonde’s shoulder. “You’d be looking for one even without Naruto being pitiable around the village missing Gaara without admitting that he’s missing Gaara.”

Tsunade dips her head in acknowledgement. She can’t disagree with Shizune there. “He doesn’t help, though.”

* * *

 

“He should be here already!” Naruto complained into the still forest outside the gates to the Hidden Leaf Village. “We were supposed to meet an hour ago! This guy…” his complaints drift off as he starts to worry. Could something have happened to Gaara on his way from Suna?

Rolling his eyes and resigning himself to some practice while he waits, Naruto starts on some chakra control. He’s full force into his training when he hears a soft  _ ahem _ .

“GAARA!” Naruto tries to leap towards Gaara in greeting, but is met with a wall of sand. “C’mon man!” Naruto pouts, prodding at the sand wall. “It’s just me.”

“Sorry, sorry…” Gaara slowly lets the sand disperse. “It protects me, you see. I didn’t think you-”

“Whatever!” Naruto steamrolls past Gaara’s trepidation and pulls him into a tight hug. “It’s been so long.”

Feeling his ears getting red, Gaara insistently snaps “Naruto! We’re here for a mission.”

“Oh, yeah. Remind me about it again. I only skimmed Grandma Tsunade’s orders.”

Sighing, Gaara shakes his head slowly. Of course. This is Naruto he’s dealing with. Lovable, but foolhardy.

“We are to travel to the Land of Bird’s top vacation city posing as a couple in order to scope out an enemy sect of bandits that have wreaked havoc not only in your land, but mine. The goal is to apprehend them and stop their activity before they pull the same stunts in future lands. The city we’re visiting is a popular tourist spot for couples and honeymooners so we will be able to avoid suspicion and scope out the area the bandits were reported to be active while posing as such. This-” Gaara pauses, fishing in his pocket for a moment, “is for you. It’s the reason I was late, I stopped by to get these and I couldn’t be sure of your size, so I just put them on chains.”

Naruto stares down at the ring Gaara is putting in his hand.

When the loudmouth doesn’t say anything, Gaara continues. “I have one too.” He pulls his own chain out from under his collar. “To help with the disguise. It wouldn’t fool an appraiser as a proper pair of engagement rings,  but to any passerby they’ll be a significant indicator of a couple.”

_ A couple. _

_ A couple. _

_ A couple. _

“Well? What are we waiting for!” Naruto blurts out, mind going a mile a minute. “You’re the reason we’re late… we gotta get going and catch those no-good bandits before they hurt more innocent people!”

“Yeah…” Gaara falls into step beside Naruto as the two start the first leg of their journey.


	2. Chapter 2

Travel to the city goes without a hitch. Mostly. Gaara hasn’t seen Naruto in a long time and is barraged with the others’ outwardly affectionate, hands-on approach to friendship.

He can’t seem to go two steps without Naruto leaning close to exclaim something, or sling an arm amicably around his shoulder before changing his mind. The guy just wouldn’t stop moving.

Gaara smiles to himself, looking down at the dirt as they traverse the forest. It might take a bit, but he could get used to this. _But not too used to it_.

Trying to focus on the mission, he realizes they should most definitely use alibis. At the very least his own name would bring up suspicion. Gaara of the Sand rumored to be in the Land of Birds… not a great idea at the moment.

Gaara speaks up for the first time in a while. “We should establish our alibis while we’re out. What names should we use during this mission?”

“You should be Kazuo!”

Startled by the quick response, Gaara can’t help but to ask, “Why?”

“Dunno.” Naruto shrugs, swinging an arm around Gaara yet again. “It just came to me, I guess.”

“Kazuo…” turning the name around in his head, Gaara gains a feel for it as an alias. “Got it.”

“What about me?” Naruto spouts. “I only thought of one for you! So you should give me my name!”

“Yuuto.” Gaara replies simply, trying not to give away that he’d been giving it much thought. “You’re a brave man, after all.”

Nodding vigorously and giving a thumbs up, Naruto releases his hold and gives Gaara a pat on the back that just about knocks the wind out of him.

As the outskirts come into view, Gaara covers his cough as Naruto leaves him in the dust. His excitement is so contagious that Gaara has to properly remind himself, yet again, that they are here on business and not for fun.

“Yuuto!” he calls out, motioning for Naruto to return to his side. Once the overeager shinobi is reigned in, it’s Gaara’s turn to lean in close. “We need to stick close. Remember our cover. A couple.”

“You’re so smart Gaa- Kazuo!” Naruto grins, tucking away his headband. The less ninja-related attention the duo receives, the better.

Gaara wasn’t expecting Naruto to grab his hand, but there he was, fingers curled into each other, Naruto’s faux engagement ring shining in the sunlight.

_For the mission._

Gaara can’t afford now of all times to let himself fall back into nonsensical unreciprocated feelings. Not when there’s work to be done. He will have way too much time to worry on that later.

Sharpening his senses and branching his attention to anywhere but where his fingers intertwine with Naruto’s he doesn’t sense any immediate threat near where they are outside the village. To be expected, the enemies must be conducting their work inside the village.

“Come on.” He tugs Naruto along the path to where it intersects with two more before the village starts to sprawl out in front of them.

“Game time.” Naruto gets a determined glint in his eye. “We got this easy, c’mon babe!”

Unable to combat the blush determined to spread across his face, Gaara looks away from those captivating eyes of Naruto’s.

 _Get a hold of yourself!_ Gaara shouted internally, eyes flitting this way and that, anywhere that isn’t the blonde. _It’s part of the mission, get your head out of the sky and deal with it like the shinobi you are. You’re hardly a convincingly engaged couple if he can manage to make you turn red this easily._

As the pair enter the village, the atmosphere is immediately clear. It’s a vacation town indeed. Stalls are open all down the main way, ice cream stops, coffee stops, anything a couple would want to hang out together and do. The sea of couples is enormous, pairs ranging from young to old, everyone looking genuinely happy and unknowledgeable about the sketchy business going on in their vacationing paradise.

Casing the area, Gaara concludes that it may be harder to investigate in the way he wanted to than he’d initially planned.

* * *

 

After milling about between others up and down the way, observing the shops and activities available, Gaara and Naruto part from the crowd.

“Let’s find a hotel!” Naruto pulls on Gaara’s arm, leading him across an alleyway and into another, less busy street. “We’ll need a home base for the time we’re here to talk privately.”

Gaara nods, searching up and down the street. Finding what he was looking for, he gestures. “This way.”

The two make their way to a decently sized establishment, approaching the front desk almost eagerly. Naruto could tell that all these people were exhausting Gaara to be around already. Not that he’d sleep, the damn insomniac.

As they make their way to the room, ready to rest from their travels before continuing work on the mission at hand in the morning, they realize one crucial detail instantaneously.

Letting the door close behind him, Naruto leans back on it. “One bed.”

“One bed.” Gaara repeats, nodding sagely, his outside calm masking the riot happening in his mind.


End file.
